Bio
Director Bio
NATALIE SCARLETT is an English and drama teacher by day and a theatrical director, writer and all around creative person all the time, especially at night. A tireless teacher, Natalie proudly coaches debate, cultivates creative writing club and directs the non-musical theatre program at Liberty Common High School. She is also chair of the Festival of Ideas and the Favorite Poem Project reading series. With the flexible schedule of a teacher, she travels extensively in the summers seeking to further her knowledge and refine her craft. In the summer of 2016 she taught English at The Gyeseong School in Seoul, Korea. The summer before she worked at the Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn through a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship for drama teachers writing a Shakespeare curriculum and studying with literature professors, professional directors and classically trained actors. While working in New York, she revived her desire to bring theatre alive outside the classroom as well as within, and she brings this enthusiasm to the Fort Collins community now. While studying at Columbia University, she actually got to touch a First Folio with her bare hands! She also worked writing poetry curriculum at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago under the leadership of former poet laureate Robert Pinsky. Before really pursuing her teaching career in Fort Collins, Natalie backpacked through Europe for eight months while she worked as a freelance English tutor, innkeeper and bike shop keeper. She travelled the country with the Tour de Fat caravan and worked as an editor for Wolverine Farm Publishing. Natalie has a B.A. from Hillsdale College in Michigan, where she studied acting and directing. Past directing credits include Sartre's No Exit and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, as well as numerous short plays. She was the first directing student in the history of her college to be chosen to direct a mainstage play as part of her senior thesis. Natalie is also a published poet and short story writer and some of her writing can be found here. While directing is her primary passion, she has acted on the semi-professional and collegiate stage in numerous roles as various as Laura in A Glass Managerie with Harvest Public Theatre and Wilma Eisenring in a punk rock Brechtian version of Beiderman and the Firebugs. She has appeared in Bas Bleu Theatre's production of If We Are Women. She has worked on several productions with OpenStage Theatre, most recently directing Caroline M. McGraw's Ultimate Beauty Bible as well as serving as assistant director on King Lear, Bug, Amadeus, and Anton in Show Business. Natalie and her husband, Aaron Williams, a local artisan luthier, are terrified and electrified as new parents to Imogen Eira Eucatasropher Elin in the spring of 2017. Natalie is proud of the thriving arts scene in Fort Collins and eager to continue writing, making theatre, producing films and generally contributing to and supporting arts and culture in our community. Cipher Creative Productions is a incubating project with which she hopes to build a new theatre company with a focus on showcasing new work by emerging writers, directors, and actors with a DIY spirit and a focus on rough innovation and community involvement. Some of her most recent work has been as the writer and director of "The Eggplant, and Other Domestic Incidents" and "Slouch and Grouch" at the Fort Collins Fringe Festival. In the fall of 2018 she wrote, directed, produced, and performed in an immersive, site-specific performance piece called Water:Works along with Judy Bejarano of IMPACT dance company.
NATALIE SCARLETT is an English and drama teacher by day and a theatrical director, writer and all around creative person all the time, especially at night. A tireless teacher, Natalie proudly coaches debate, cultivates creative writing club and directs the non-musical theatre program at Liberty Common High School. She is also chair of the Festival of Ideas and the Favorite Poem Project reading series. With the flexible schedule of a teacher, she travels extensively in the summers seeking to further her knowledge and refine her craft. In the summer of 2016 she taught English at The Gyeseong School in Seoul, Korea. The summer before she worked at the Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn through a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship for drama teachers writing a Shakespeare curriculum and studying with literature professors, professional directors and classically trained actors. While working in New York, she revived her desire to bring theatre alive outside the classroom as well as within, and she brings this enthusiasm to the Fort Collins community now. While studying at Columbia University, she actually got to touch a First Folio with her bare hands! She also worked writing poetry curriculum at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago under the leadership of former poet laureate Robert Pinsky. Before really pursuing her teaching career in Fort Collins, Natalie backpacked through Europe for eight months while she worked as a freelance English tutor, innkeeper and bike shop keeper. She travelled the country with the Tour de Fat caravan and worked as an editor for Wolverine Farm Publishing. Natalie has a B.A. from Hillsdale College in Michigan, where she studied acting and directing. Past directing credits include Sartre's No Exit and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, as well as numerous short plays. She was the first directing student in the history of her college to be chosen to direct a mainstage play as part of her senior thesis. Natalie is also a published poet and short story writer and some of her writing can be found here. While directing is her primary passion, she has acted on the semi-professional and collegiate stage in numerous roles as various as Laura in A Glass Managerie with Harvest Public Theatre and Wilma Eisenring in a punk rock Brechtian version of Beiderman and the Firebugs. She has appeared in Bas Bleu Theatre's production of If We Are Women. She has worked on several productions with OpenStage Theatre, most recently directing Caroline M. McGraw's Ultimate Beauty Bible as well as serving as assistant director on King Lear, Bug, Amadeus, and Anton in Show Business. Natalie and her husband, Aaron Williams, a local artisan luthier, are terrified and electrified as new parents to Imogen Eira Eucatasropher Elin in the spring of 2017. Natalie is proud of the thriving arts scene in Fort Collins and eager to continue writing, making theatre, producing films and generally contributing to and supporting arts and culture in our community. Cipher Creative Productions is a incubating project with which she hopes to build a new theatre company with a focus on showcasing new work by emerging writers, directors, and actors with a DIY spirit and a focus on rough innovation and community involvement. Some of her most recent work has been as the writer and director of "The Eggplant, and Other Domestic Incidents" and "Slouch and Grouch" at the Fort Collins Fringe Festival. In the fall of 2018 she wrote, directed, produced, and performed in an immersive, site-specific performance piece called Water:Works along with Judy Bejarano of IMPACT dance company.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
Conference Participation and Fellowships
Service:
Workshops:
Poetry
Grants:
Professional Directing
Film Projects:
Editorial Appointments and writing jobs
Apprenticeships and Teaching experience
Events organized, Public Speaking, and Leadership
- Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, MI. Graduated 2009 with B.A. from the Department of Theatre and Speech.
- First Hillsdale College student asked to direct a mainstage production for senior capstone
Conference Participation and Fellowships
- Panelist at the first Denver Immersive Summit, 2018 on Writing Immersive Narratives
- Moderator for (St)Art Up week on panels about Immersive Art, Arts Festivals, and Artists from outside Colorado.
- National Endowment for the Humanities two-week summer institute at The Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn, NY. Seminar entitled “Scholarship and Performance: A Combined Approach to Teaching Shakespeare’s Plays” Studied with Dr. Mario DiGangi, Professor of English at Lehman College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York and Dr. Julie Crawford, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and Chair of Literature Humanities. 2015
- Participant in The Poetry Foundation’s first “Summer Poetry Teachers Institute” in Chicago with Robert Pinsky, Maggie Dietz, Carl Philips, and other prominent poets. 2015
- Attended Colorado Thespian Society’s teachers conference in Denver, CO. 2015
- Poetry writing seminar, Denver Lighthouse Writer’s workshop, 2015
- Ashbrook Institute’s civil rights conference, Ridgeview Classical Schools, 2014
- Attended two-days of Institute for Excellence in Writing teacher training, 2014
- Participated in 6-week Love and Logic course, 2013
- DePauw Undergraduate Honors Conference of Communications and Theatre, 2009
- Presented a competitively selected paper to scholars of national prominence in theatre history entitled Ibsen’s Wild Women: The Rise of the Individual in Ibsen’s Rosmersholm
- American College Theatre Festival, Irene Ryan Scholarship finalist in monologue competition, 2009
Service:
- Grant writing, sponsorships, and organization for the Fort Collins Fringe Festival
- Chaperoned groups of students on Costa Rica educational trip, 2015.
- Lead tour group of students on England, France, and Spain trip, 2016.
- Trained with EF Tours to become a qualified tour group leader in Rome, Italy 2015
- OpenStage Theatre Company, unpaid backstage work, Fort Collins, CO
- Wolverine Farm Publishing, poetry co-editor, Fort Collins, CO
- Matter Bookstore, non-profit bookstore to fund literacy programs, Fort Collins, CO
Workshops:
- Selected to participate in poetry workshop with biographer and poet Dr. Paul Mariani
- Selected to participate in short story workshop with novelist Jim Shepard
Poetry
- First prize winner of the Poudre River Library District’s annual Battle of the Bard poetry competition, 2015
- Splat Art and Writing Journal, poems and interview, Fall 2011
- Southern Indiana Review, University of Southern Indiana, Fall 2005
Grants:
- Wrote and won a $3,200.00 grant for Water:Works—An Immersive Performance from Fort Fund
Professional Directing
- Water:Works—An Immersive Performance Written, created, produced, and directed by Natalie Scarlett in collaboration with Impact Dance at the Historic 1883 Waterworks. 2018
- Slouch and Grouch: Das Kapital, Co-created, directed, and produced. 2018
- Slouch and Grouch: Universal Remote, Co-created, directed, and produced. 2018
- The Eggplant, and Other Domestic Incidents, original piece written, produced and directed by Natalie Scarlett for the Fort Collins Fringe Festival. 2017
- Slouch and Grouch, devised piece written and directed by Natalie Scarlett. 2017
- Ultimate Beauty Bible, OpenStage Theatre. 2016
- Hamlet, LCHS theatre production. Fall, 2015
- The Importance of Being Earnest, LCHS theatre production. Spring 2014
- Amadeus, OpenStage Theatre Company, Assistant Director. Fall 2014
- Singin’ in the Rain, LCHS theatre production. Fall 2013
- King Lear with OpenStage Theatre Company, Assistant Director. Spring 2011
Film Projects:
- Writer and actor for Weekend Warrior Film “Perpetuum.” In round 3 team won best writing, directing, cinematography, and editing.
- PA, Art Developer, and Performer for I Am The Owl music video “New Horizons”
- Co-creator, co-writer, and co-director of six Slouch and Grouch short comedic films
Editorial Appointments and writing jobs
- Performing Arts Writer at Salt Magazine
- Satirical content writer for Camp Collins
- Contributor to Aspect:Ratio arts journal
Apprenticeships and Teaching experience
- Taught English to ELL students for the summer of 2016 in Seoul, Korea
Events organized, Public Speaking, and Leadership
- Gave a talk on immersive and environmental theatre as part of PuchaKucha, 2017
- Presented on “Theatre for All Ages” at the Core Knowledge Colorado Conference, 2014
- Delivered “The Teachers We Need and How We Can Be Them” lecture to LCHS faculty, admin, and board members, 2014
- Gave public talk entitled “Living What We Teach: Combating Anti-Intellectualism in Culture and Education,” 2016
- Organized several Favorite Poem Project Reading at Liberty Common High School, 2015
| scarlett_cv_2018__1_.pdf |
Resume
Work Experience:
Cipher Creative Productions, Founder, Producer, Writer, and Director. 2016-present
Salt Magazine, Performing Arts Writer. 2017-present
Private English Tutor and Freeland Copy Editor, 2016-present
Liberty Common High School, English and Drama high school teacher. 2013-present
Gyeseong Girl’s School in Seoul, South Korea, visiting English teacher. 2016
OpenStage Theatre, theatrical director for many plays. 2012-present
B.A.S.E Camp Site Director, Tavelli Elementary. 2012-2013
WorkAway, volunteer in 7 countries in Europe. 2012
Ridgeview Classical School, Apprentice Teacher. Spring Semester, 2012
Education:
2009, Hillsdale College. Hillsdale, Michigan
B.A. in Theatre and Speech with an emphasis in Directing
See CV for conference, workshop, and continuing education experience
Community Involvement:
Performing Arts Writer at Salt Magazine
Volunteer with Weekend Warrior Film Festival
Regular writer for Aspect: Ratio Zine
Grant writer and sponsorship seeker for the Fort Collins Fringe Festival
Founder and chair of the Festival of Ideas
Founder of LCHS theatre program
Local Organizer for the Favorite Poem Project
EF International tour guide
| natalie_scarletts_resume__1_.pdf |
Acting Experience
Theatre and Film resume available by request.
"Laura is portrayed by Natalie Scarlett, whom Quinlan calls "a kind of a wunderkind." She's a published poet and an accomplished actress and has appeared in several Shakespeare competitions, he says."
Toledo Blade Review of Glass Menagerie, Harvest Theatre of Toledo
"Natalie scarlett as Laura Wingfield is vulnerable and evokes empathy essential to make this production work. "
Toledo City Paper Review of Glass Menagerie, Harvest Theatre of Toledo
“Scarlett is a treat as Sepp’s playfully devious accomplice, Wilma Eisenring…”
Hillsdale Collegian review of Beidermann and the Firebugs
“Natalie , as a member of the actors' group, was very talented, creative, and a pleasure to work with. She is a natural leader, with sensitivity and compassion.”
Madge Levinson, Director, YoungPlaygoers, Toledo Repertoire Theatre
directed Natalie at Toledo Repetoire Theatre
"Laura is portrayed by Natalie Scarlett, whom Quinlan calls "a kind of a wunderkind." She's a published poet and an accomplished actress and has appeared in several Shakespeare competitions, he says."
Toledo Blade Review of Glass Menagerie, Harvest Theatre of Toledo
"Natalie scarlett as Laura Wingfield is vulnerable and evokes empathy essential to make this production work. "
Toledo City Paper Review of Glass Menagerie, Harvest Theatre of Toledo
“Scarlett is a treat as Sepp’s playfully devious accomplice, Wilma Eisenring…”
Hillsdale Collegian review of Beidermann and the Firebugs
“Natalie , as a member of the actors' group, was very talented, creative, and a pleasure to work with. She is a natural leader, with sensitivity and compassion.”
Madge Levinson, Director, YoungPlaygoers, Toledo Repertoire Theatre
directed Natalie at Toledo Repetoire Theatre
